The Governor of Washington State, Jay Inslee, just had a hissy fit when he learned that the state’s Department of Licensing was cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He quickly put up his own wall to block any future cooperation and protect those who are in this country illegally.

In Washington state, getting a driver’s license does not require American citizenship, but the state did record where applicants were born. The Department of Licensing was treating ICE exactly like every other law enforcement agency, providing collected information only when given a name and a specific crime being investigated.

“We have stopped releasing information relative to immigration violations, and from here forward we’re going to require a court order to do such,” said Krista Carlson, a Washington state Department of Licensing spokeswoman.

Inslee has also hired Michelle Gonzalez as a special assistant. Her job is to make sure no state agency gives ICE any information that is not specifically required by law. She’ll also comb through state records to determine if agencies are currently collecting immigration information they should not.

Some Republican lawmakers are angry. State Senator Curtis King said “This is like trying to make this a sanctuary state.” Not allowing federal agencies to go after those who are committing crimes in this state amounts to that.

Thomas Homan, acting director of ICE said that such policies may be violating federal laws against harboring illegal aliens.

“The governor is exposing Washington state to litigation, because he is picking and choosing which law enforcement agencies he is going to give information to,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “He doesn’t get to do that.”

An ICE official tells Fox News its licensing inquiries are not blanket fishing expeditions, but rather part of targeted criminal investigations going after individuals who pose a national security risk or public safety threat.

Back in January President Trump informed the American people that an immediate priority for his administration would be to require sanctuary cities to cooperate with federal law. To explain, if two drivers were hauled over on the freeway, one heading South, one heading North, each given a ticket for speeding and asked for their driver’s licenses—the officers in each case returning to their cars and asking for any outstanding warrants—the one heading North will be taken in, as he has an outstanding warrant for selling a small amount of a prohibited drug. The one heading South has a federal detainer request for criminal sex trafficking and is an illegal immigrant, and will be released to go his own way because police in sanctuary cities are required to release illegal immigrants.

An October 2014 report from ICE that was made public in 2015 detailed 276 sanctuary cities that released 8,145 illegal migrants of whom 1,867 were later arrested 4,298 times with multiple violations amounting to 7,491 charges. Illegal migrants are 3.5 percent of the U.S. population but are 37.6 percent of federal sentences and 13.6 percent of all offenders sentenced for crimes nationwide. The undocumented comprise 12 percent of murder sentences, 20 percent of kidnapping sentences and 16 percent of drug trafficking sentences. Unauthorized migrants are about 7 percent of the California population but over 12 percent of the state prison population.

Sanctuary cities become magnets for illegal immigrants with criminal records. The Left tries to portray this effort as empathy, but it is nothing of the sort, it is an effort to get more potential Democrat voters with open borders. Those who were admitted under Obama’s open borders policies were sent to voting districts where they would potentially change the political nature of the district. There are also extensive records of illegals voting. The federal government is trying to deport dangerous criminal aliens. Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez was a seven-times convicted felon who was free in San Francisco because the city refused to honor a detainer warrant from ICE. Because of the city’s sanctuary policy Kate Steinle was shot and killed in 2015 in a senseless, avoidable and brutal crime.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has warned sanctuary cities and counties that they face losing federal funding, but in their rage against losing an election, the Democrat legislature in California is going to officially become a sanctuary state. The state Senate passed the bill, 27-12 sending it to the Assembly.

The bill was amended last week by de León, D-Los Angeles, and will now allow local and state agencies to let Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents know before convicted felons of serious or violent crimes are released from custody. It also makes it easier for local agencies to transfer criminals into ICE’s custody.

The changes to the bill also allow California law enforcement agencies to work with ICE task forces if the main purpose of the team is not immigration enforcement.

“We will cooperate with our friends at the federal level with serious and violent felons. But we won’t cooperate or lift a finger or spend a single cent when we’re talking about separating children from their mothers, mothers from their children,” de León said. “That’s not who we are as a great state.”

I guess Obama’s “That’s not who we are…” has become an all-inclusive meme for the Democratic Party. California is currently home to an estimated 2.3 million or more illegal aliens. California is also currently suing the federal government to say they can’t take away their federal money. The House Appropriations Committee has said they will have no problem withholding funding.

A new report from the Ohio Jobs and Justice Political Action Committee says that sanctuary cities are growing and 36 new locales have been added to the list of nearly 500 sanctuary cities. The group has been tracking sanctuary cities for over 10 years. This doesn’t seem to be anything that appears on a ballot, but rather the machinations of city councils—what they are now calling “virtue-signalling” — or “see what a good person I am.”

What I don’t get is why anyone would assume that being a “Sanctuary City” in direct defiance of federal laws is a good thing, nor why protecting illegal aliens is to be considered admirable. We have immigration laws. If you want to come to the United States to visit, to work, or to live and/or become a citizen, there are rules to protect both the immigrant and the American people.

Sanctuary Cities announce that because they want to be perceived as good people, they want to ignore the rules and regulations and let those who refuse to follow the law be protected from arrest or detention, no matter what they have done or plan to do. Is that stating it baldly enough? Why would you want to protect people, who have already demonstrated that they have no respect for the law— instead of your own citizens?

The Left likes to play with words, in this case attempting to confuse people’s perception of the difference between an illegal alien, an immigrant, a refugee, an H1B worker, and someone here on a visitor’s visa who has illegally overstayed.

The same thing is being played out in President Trump’s Executive Order halting immigration from 7 countries selected by the Obama administration for 90 days until vetting procedures can be developed to cope with the absence of official sources in those countries to identify the would-be immigrants. This is not a ban on Muslim immigrants—there are far more Muslims in other countries who are not being banned at all.

These are countries where ISIS and alQaeda are prominent and who have announced that they are sending their fighters into our country to kill Americans. Seventy-two terrorists from these countries have been convicted in our courts.

More than 1800 refugees from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen have been resettled in this country in the period since a federal court judge suspended key parts of an executive order dated Jan. 27 from these 7 nations. Unvetted. But they are refugeeeees! Maybe, maybe not. We can help far more actual refugees if we help them in areas near to their homes simply because it costs a lot more to resettle them here. As usual, what is most important to members of the Left is “a matter of their very flattering vision of themselves as people trying to save the planet, rescue the exploited and create social justice” for all.

President Trump has rewritten his Executive Order, which was due to take effect but a Hawaii judge has issued the same sort of illegal halt that a Seattle District judge issued earlier. In this case it is really astonishing. The Hawaii District Judge said that he didn’t need to read the order, but that because Trump had spoken unfavorably about Muslims during the campaign, clearly he had animus against Muslims. He also included the objections of a local Muslim of Egyptian descent who felt that he was discriminated against in spite of the fact that there was nothing in the Order that affected him in any way. Whew! The Constitution is absolutely clear that the President of the United States can exclude anyone he wants to from entering the United States. The Hawaii ruling will go to the Ninth Circuit which gets overruled constantly because they are so far left.

This is once again the Left, who are furious that Donald Trump won the election, furious that they have been decimated at every level of government, and so devoid of a “bench” that they are reduced to touting Chelsea Clinton, Al Franken and Senator Cherokee Cheekbones as potential candidates.

Democrats know they are in trouble, and have declared total war, and to heck with the Constitution. They are trying to use refugees and illegals to change the demographics of voting districts in a way more friendly to the Left. Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder plan to file lawsuits across the country in districts where lines have been redrawn, or ‘gerrymandered’ by Republicans, to find cause to flip them in a way more favorable to Democrats.

The idea that you can simply reject the results of an election because you don’t like the winning candidate is completely antithetical to American Law and American tradition. It is not a small matter, and should be taken seriously as an attack on the nation by those who do not care about American Law and American tradition.

According to Breitbart, sanctuary policies across the country have meant that 8,145 criminal immigrants that Immigration and Customs sought to deport have been released by sanctuary cities and counties.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a report in the wake of the murder of Kathryn Steinle. CIS’ report revealed that 63 percent of the 8,145 released criminal immigrants in 276 jurisdictions from January 1, 2014 to August 31, 2014 had “serious prior criminal criminal records, and one fourth had a prior felony charge or conviction.”

As of last month, the total number of those ordered detained which sanctuary jurisdictions did not honor grew to more than 17,000.

In most cases the Sanctuary designation was ordered by a local police or sheriff’s jurisdiction, here in Washington and Oregon, where there seem to be lots of sanctuaries. In California the designation was more often by cities or counties. Just why these jurisdictions choose to fail to follow federal law is unclear. Probably it is because they do not have the facilities or funds to hold criminal immigrants for ICE. Some examples cited by Jessica Vaughan who wrote the CIS report were appalling.

–Los Angeles, Calif.: On April 6, 2014, an alien was arrested for “felony continuous sexual abuse of a child”. After release, the alien was arrested for “felony sodomy of a victim under 10 years old”.

–San Mateo County, Calif.: On February 16, 2014, an individual was arrested for “felony lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14″. In addition, the alien had a prior DUI conviction. Following release by the local agency, the individual was arrested for three counts of “felony oral copulation with a victim under 10″ and two counts of “felony lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14”.

–Miami Beach, Fla.: On December 19, 2013, the police department arrested an alien for felony grand theft. This alien had been ordered removed (and presumably absconded) in 2009. The alien also had prior convictions for strong-arm robbery, cocaine possession, larceny, trespassing, theft, marijuana possession, and resisting an officer. After release by the local agency, the alien was arrested on two separate occasions; once for “aggravated assault with a weapon and larceny” and once for “under the influence of a controlled substance”.

I don’t understand why any jurisdiction would want to declare itself a “sanctuary” where felons can go to be free of the fear of being turned over to the federal department charged with deporting criminals.

There is a movement in Congress in response to the Steinle murder to deprive any jurisdiction calling itself a “sanctuary,” and failing to obey federal law of any and all federal funds. We’ll see.